Episode Thirteen-Thomas Jefferson and Benedict Arnold

Two men, two patriotsOne on the path to independence for the colonies, The other wandering off the path on a journey from patriot to traitor

General Arnold, who would write of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, “good God, are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their liberties, or are they all turned philosophers, that they don’t take immediate vengeance on such miscreants” and who would render distinguished military services to his country, would betray that loyalty and commit treacherous deeds a little less than a decade later. Hear his story as Jefferson tries to understand what went wrong that turned a rebel and patriot into an enemy, one whom Jefferson as the Governor of Virginia would order captured: “It is above all things desirable to drag Arnold from those under whose wing he is now sheltered… I will undertake, if they are successful in bringing him off alive, that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them. And to men, formed for such an enterprise, it must be a great incitement to know that their names will be recorded with glory in history…”